1 Corinthians 5 Footnotes

5:1 Corinth straddled a narrow isthmus between two waterways, its ports on each side bustling with seafarers. Aphrodite, the sexual goddess, was the city’s patron deity. Inevitably, the promiscuity of the city shaped the minds and hearts of its citizens. So pervasive and deep was this influence that even when a person became a Christian, it did not go away easily. In chaps. 5–7 Paul urged sexual purity in a city of low moral standards. Here a form of incest that caused even pagans to blush had to be confronted. A man was living with his father’s wife—apparently his step-mother.

5:5 What did turning over the sexual offender “to Satan” mean? It was Paul’s code for excluding an unrepentant offender from the circle of redemption (the congregation) to the sphere where Satan dominated the children of Adam (the outside world), where this man indicated he really belonged. This exclusion, however, was redemptive in intent. Let the bitterness and darkness of the world outside bring its own impact on the man so that he might repent and be restored (see especially 2Th 3:6,14-15).